Long-Term Credit Bank Is Judged
To Be Insolvent After Nationalization

TOKYO -- Japan launched its long-awaited banking industry mop-up package Friday with the nationalization of Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd., and concluded what markets had suspected for months: LTCB is insolvent.

The government chose Hakuo Yanagisawa, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat and now a politician, to head the team of experts who will decide how many LTCB managers will lose their jobs, who will run the new bank, and how soon the new lender's good assets will be put up for auction. These issues will continue...